From the BZ editorial team
Election triumph for the SPD in Bremen: According to initial forecasts, the party with top candidate and mayor Andreas Bovenschulte (57) is the strongest force in the Hanseatic city, receiving 29.5 percent of the votes (as of 6 p.m.).
Comeback done!
In the last general election in 2019, the SPD had to record a historically poor result with 24.9 percent of the votes. Whereas the CDU was ahead for the first time in the history of the state of Bremen.
► NOW the SPD is getting a plus of around five percent!
“What a day, what a result,” said Bovenschulte happily on the evening before his party. “The SPD in Bremen is back, the number one in Bremen – that’s us!”
SPD General Secretary Kevin Kühnert (33) praised the electoral success of his party members in the state elections in Bremen. “We are extremely proud of the SPD in Bremen and Bremerhaven,” said Kühnert on Sunday on ARD.
According to initial forecasts, the CDU is the second strongest force
► According to initial forecasts, the CDU with top candidate Frank Imhoff (54) won 25.5 percent of the votes in this year’s state elections. A drop of around one percent compared to the 2019 election result (26.7 percent).
Nevertheless, Imhoff was satisfied with his party’s performance in the state elections on Sunday evening. “I’m proud of our party, of us,” he said. “We rocked the election campaign.” The CDU gave everything in the election campaign and was “great”
The CDU was not allowed to govern in 2019 despite its election victory: the second-placed SPD had formed the government together with the Greens and the Left Party. However, Bovenschulte did not want to be committed to the continuation of this three-party coalition either in the run-up to the election or on Sunday evening.
That’s how the Greens did
► Clap for the Greens! According to the first forecasts, they only get 12.5 percent of the votes – around five percent less than in the last general election (17.4 percent).
The Greens’ top candidate Maike Schaefer (51) did not want to comment on a resignation in the evening. The result will now be looked at very closely and “then there will certainly be consequences,” said Schaefer on ARD.
► According to the first forecasts, the Left comes to 10.5 percent.
The FDP must tremble!
► According to the first forecasts, the liberals come to 5.5 percent – and are thus close to the five percent hurdle. It was also tight in the last election in 2019, when the FDP got 5.9 percent.
AfD was not allowed to compete, citizens benefited in anger
The AfD was excluded from the election because two competing groups in the party had submitted election lists. The right-wing populist voters’ association Bürger in Wut (BiW) was able to benefit from this exclusion: According to initial forecasts, it received 10.5 percent of the votes!
► According to the first forecasts, other parties come to 6 percent.
More than 462,000 Bremen residents were allowed to vote in the general election. The polling stations have been closed since 6 p.m.
Because Bremen has a complicated electoral system, counting is lengthy. Therefore, on the evening of the election Sunday, the state returning authority only publishes an official extrapolation for the citizens, based on 95 voting districts. According to all experience, however, this extrapolation is close to the provisional official final result, which is determined a few days later after a complete count.